A UX audit is a structured, one-off assessment of an existing website or product — a focused way to find out what's confusing users, where they're dropping off, and what's fixable without a full redesign. It's the right starting point when you already suspect something isn't working but don't yet know what, or why.
A UX audit is a structured, one-off assessment of an existing website or product — a focused way to find out what's confusing users, where they're dropping off, and what's fixable without a full redesign. It's the right starting point when you already suspect something isn't working but don't yet know what, or why.
A UX audit is an expert evaluation of how well your website or product actually works for the people using it, carried out against established usability principles and, where relevant, real user behaviour rather than opinion or internal preference. It's not a redesign and it's not open-ended research — it's a defined piece of work with a clear scope, a set process, and a specific output: a prioritised list of what's wrong and what to do about it.
Agreeing which parts of the site or product the audit covers and what decision it needs to inform, so the audit is sized to the actual question rather than run as a blanket review.
A structured walkthrough against usability heuristics, accessibility standards and, where available, your own analytics data.
Every issue rated by severity and effort, so it's clear what's worth fixing first rather than presented as an undifferentiated list.
Findings delivered in a format built to be acted on, talked through directly with your team rather than left to be interpreted from a document alone.
A prioritised list of usability issues, each rated by how much it's likely to be costing you and how much effort it would take to fix, alongside specific recommendations rather than vague direction. Issues are typically grouped into quick wins you can action immediately and larger structural problems that need more planning, so you're not left treating a five-minute fix and a page redesign as equally urgent.
A UX audit is a one-off, structured assessment — the right fit when you have an existing website or product and want an expert view on what's not working. If you're earlier than that, validating a problem or idea before you've built anything, or wanting more open-ended research into your users' needs, our User & UX Research page is the better starting point. If you want an ongoing relationship or a single usability testing session with real users, see UX Consultancy & Usability Testing.
| UX Audit | User & UX Research | |
|---|---|---|
| Best for | An existing site or product you suspect isn't working | Validating a problem or idea before you've built anything |
| Format | Expert review against usability principles and data | Interviews, testing and open-ended research with real users |
| Typical timeline | Short, defined timeframe | Sized to the decision, days to a couple of weeks |
| Ongoing or one-off | One-off | Scoped per project, can recur as new decisions come up |
This tends to be the right starting point if you've got a live website or product, suspect something in the experience isn't working, low conversion, high drop-off, confused support queries, but don't yet have a clear enough picture to know what to fix. It's a lighter, faster commitment than a full research project, and a natural first step before deciding whether deeper research or an ongoing consultancy relationship is actually needed.
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